


The Chronicles of Recurring Dreams

by Katsuke



Category: Original Work
Genre: Halloween Special, Nightmare, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:34:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27123250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katsuke/pseuds/Katsuke
Summary: Have you ever had a recurring dream?Here's one of mine...
Kudos: 1





	The Chronicles of Recurring Dreams

I had one, maybe like 10 or 15 years ago ( I drew a part of it, so I'm sure I could find the exact date).

I found myself at some sort of carnival. There are tents and basically all the kiosks are serving food in one form or another. I walk up to one that looks like a kind of buffet, and all they are serving is meat - all meat base dishes. I didn't pick up any, but when I made my way to the cashier at the end, there was no one, only a wooden sign. Now, I know we aren't supposed to be able to read in dream, but I remember it said: The more you eat, the more we need employees.  
It struck me as weird, so I made my way to the back, find like the 'employee's locker room'. I sneak my way past undetected until...

I come across an opening in-between two pan of the tents. There is a flickering light coming from there so I peer in and look. There is a clearing, like a an empty circle hidden among the several tents making up the kiosk. In the middle of the clearing, there are candles lit in a circle, casting shadow onto the horrible display in the middle of them.  
A deer is laid on its back, leaning in a lounging chair of some sort, it's limbs spread wide, it's ribcage exposed and cracked open, guts leaking between the bones onto the grass below. The carcass itself is disgusting, but what is even more alarming is the body of the human laying inside it, cushioned by flesh and broken bones, it sits there, unconscious.. or dead? I cant tell.

The smell is foul, the images are burned into my mind. What is going on here? and somehow, i can tell it is linked to the kiosk's meat exclusive menu. this is one of their employees. They don't need more employee to serve customers, they need more employee to provide the fresh meat. Each one carefully offered to some secret god to be sanctified before being fed to the unknowing visitors.

Withholding a disgusted hiccup, i move away, just as cloaked figures make their way to the corpse. I can't look, but I know they are about to take it apart. I run away, fearing to be discovered and to have to run away, chased into the labyrinth of corridors the tents are forming. I pass by the employee's locker room again, it's empty. I run through it, looking for the exit and finally, it's there, a flap moving in the wind like a flag announcing freedom. The moment I step outside I'm met with a far stretch of grass, devoid of people, tents, only the lights of the carnival be be seen from beyond the hill and the echoes of cheery music heard. I'm free... and the relieved feeling I'm feeling is enough to pull me for my sleep.

until the next night...

****

It take a few days, but I'm back at the carnival. I don't take as much time this time around to explore and inspect the meat dishes offered at the buffet. This time also, there is no one at the cashier. The sign still entices people to buy more, warning it means they'll have to hire more people. I have a bad feeling...

I make my way to the back again, finding without trouble the employee's locker room, only this time, my friend is there, chatting away with a colleague as they put on their uniform. My heart stops. no... she can't be here! I take a first step in the room, opening my mouth to warn her but I'm too panicked. I don't want her here, I want her far away and safe and if she's here that means-

I wake up covered in sweat, heavy breathing filling the darkness of my room. It was just a dream... I'm safe.. she's safe....

Until the next night.......

****

That night, when I find myself surrounded by the lanterns of the carnival, I know exactly where I am. I know what is going on, I know where I have to be. I ignore the buffet, slipping behind the counter quickly, as if pressed for time. hopefully this time I can do something. I already know where the exit is. All I have to do is get everyone out.  
But the layout changed since last time, or is it my memory is hazy? it has been a few weeks after all.  
I spot the light seeping through the curtains and I can almost taste the rotting deer flesh. I don't want to see it again. I can never forget it, but the mere thought it could have something more this time is enough to make me close my eyes while I ran past the opening. I gag, but keep walking. My main goal is to make sure my friend is safe, that every body is safe.

when I walk into the locker room, heads turn to me in confusion. perhaps I'm a new employee, no doubt nobody works here long enough to get to know everyone. I scan the room, but my friend isn't there. It should be a relief, but instead, my gut turn of themselves, and I look back in the corridor, thinking of the clearing. could she be?  
A hand comes down on my shoulder and i jump in surprise.

"(__) what are you doing here?"

Thank the lord it's her!

I hug her tightly, on the brink of tears, so glad she's okay. but wait no.. she's not! we have to leave!

I grab her hand and pull her toward the exit. We have to leave.. now!  
But she pries her hand from mine, reprimanding me for troubling her while she's at work. It's not work! I tell her. You are only hired as produce, not to provide service! But she shakes her head.

"Stop it, you're just upset I got a job and you didn't."

I don't want to work here, we have to leave! I can feel it inside me, time is running out. Any minute now, they'll come and grab her, kill her, kill me for discovering their secret. I beg her, but she wont hear it and pushes me away. The others employees have left us, my awkward tantrum making them uncomfortable. One more time, I try to grab her hand, to pull her away, but she shakes me off. She's done with me, she wants me to leave. And without being able to hold her back, I can only watch as she turns around and walks away, swallowed by the dark clothed corridor I came in by.

My heart breaks in a million pieces, and the tightening in my chest becomes painful. So painful, I open my mouth to let out a loud sob..

And the sob wakes me.

I hold my shoulders tight, reminding myself that fight did happen but had nothing to do with a job, or a carnival or anything else. It was just friends moving away from each other. It was just life.

It was just a dream....

until the next night......

****

It had been a while since I've been here last.

The dark sky above was as starless as I last remembered it. The scattered tents that make up the carnival give me that uneasy familiar feeling, like walking through an old neighborhood that remains the same yet something is different. My mind wanders, trying to pinpoint what has changed but failing. My gaze is drawn to one of the tent, it's counter layered with empty bins I know are supposed to be filled with meat. I take them in, for old time sake. The sign is gone too. Or maybe it's still there, but I just can't read what is on it. Maybe if I could, the question in my mind could be answered.

What do you want from me now?

Without haste, I make my way to the back. It's dead silent and somehow it feels wrong. there should be the echoes of laughter in the distance, the far off voices of employees getting ready for 'work', but instead, the lack of noise is deafening. As I walk in the obscured corridor, I see the crack in the drapes can no longer be seen. Not that I don't clearly remember what had been there, but this time, I don't have to close my eyes to walk by it. I come upon the locker room. There are people there, but I can't hear them, their words muted by the night. I peek around the corner and spot my friend seemingly having a friendly chat with a colleague. Part of me wants to warn her, but I know she won't listen. I has been so long, I only feel resignation as I look upon her.

I have moved on, we both have.

So I quietly hide behind the lockers, keeping to the shadows to make my way across the room. I don't know why I'm here again but I feel no urgency, just the need to move on, to get out of this place. Maybe I could find the authorities, tell them about the secret hiding in the clutter of the kiosks. 

As I walk, I begin to feel uneasy, like something is watching me, but I wave the feeling aside. 

The exit is right there, a triangle leading into the darkness.

I step outside and stop.

I'm not outside. This is the clearing I thought had disappeared. When I turn around, the door has vanished and I am met with lit candles surrounding me.

I note the lines at my feet, forming shapes and writings I cannot decipher. The light from the candles cast abnormally deep shadows, as if the curtains surrounding the clearing had been swallowed in darkness. I'm suddenly filled with dread. I had only watched this part from outside, behind the relative security of the tent's curtains, and now, I'm completely exposed, alone in the middle of this strange ceremonial ground. My eyes search around me with morbid curiosity to find the dead deer, but it too seems to have vanished. In its place, the lounging chair is empty, rusted and discolored like it had been washed with haste. Something tell me, the deer also has to be replaced in interval and a dark thought creeps in my mind: It doesn't have to be a deer.

A corpse in a corpse.

Flesh offered by flesh.

Bone caged by bones.

I whip around, not wanting to know more. The lack of urgency is gone, I need to find my way out _now_.

I run in the darkness, blinded by fear, and somehow find a door. I slam it open and run, run into the grass hills, only slightly aware of the lights of the carnival's lanterns dimming as they go out one by one. 

_This is my last chance._

The thought is foreign, not mine, yet resounds in my head clearly.

My foot gets caught in a wire and I trip, landing on my hands and knees. It doesn't hurt, if only it did, I would have woken up. No, instead, the pain is in my confused mind. I look up to find the hill covered in a grid of metal wires than remind me of those boot camp for soldiers where they have to crawl under barb wire. So without a second thought, I do just that, crawling my way out, trying to get as much distance between me and the abandoned kiosks. 

My body is heavy and it's getting harder and harder to move, as if the ground itself is clinging to me, holding me back but I keep at it. There seems to be no end to the wires and I start to regret my decision to get under it. At least from above, I'd have a good view and a better idea of where I'm heading.

_"Fouuuuund youuuu."_

My blood turns cold in my veins and I whip my head back, looking behind me and have to look up to find the origin of the voice.

The woman his floating high above me, tethered clothes whipping around her, her legs hanging below her like off a corpse, her arms slack, shoulder dislocated from their sockets in a unsettling angle. She looks down at me with a wicked smile and empty sockets seeping dried blood. I can't tell if she's alive or not but the crack her neck makes when she tilts her head at me makes me shivers.

" _Fouuuuund youuuuuu_ ," she cackles again and her voice echoes in my head.

Three times, I had escaped her, three time she had dragged me back.

this time... I'm not getting away.

[The end]

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween my dearies~~


End file.
